Industries, such as oil and gas industries, implement pump assemblies for performing high pressure pumping operations including, but not limited to, exploration of wellbore, cementing of wellbore, and extraction of hydrocarbons. The pump assemblies include a fluid end block. Typically, working fluid is drawn in via a suction valve and introduced in the fluid end block. The working fluid is pressurized and subsequently discharged under high pressure for performing the aforementioned operations.
The fluid end block is generally subjected to high pressures, which are cyclic in nature. The high pressure operations often make the fluid end block susceptible to damages in the form of erosion, wear and tear, and fatigue. Such damages can result in formation of cracks in the fluid end block and require the pump operation to be shut down. Generally, a repair of the fluid end block requires replacement of the entire fluid end block, which increases cost associated with maintenance of the pump assemblies.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,243,630 describes a segmented fluid end for high-pressure plunger pumps. One segmented fluid end includes one or more fluid end modules, each fluid end module including a body providing a plunger bore configured to receive a plunger therein and a discharge outlet in fluid communication with the plunger bore. A pressurized working fluid may exit the body of each fluid end module via the discharge outlet. The segmented fluid end includes a discharge manifold having an elongate manifold body configured to be operatively coupled to each fluid end module. The manifold body includes a first end, a second end, a discharge bore extending between the first and second ends, and one or more discharge inlets that fluidly communicate with the discharge bore. The segmented fluid end further includes ring joint gasket arranged between each discharge inlet of the discharge manifold and a corresponding discharge outlet of the one or more fluid end modules.